I'm just writing this because I wasn't sure about buying a Twinstar algae inhibitor to my nano tank. After researching, I found out that they have a model for nano tanks called Twinstar II M3. I hit the bullet and got it for $92 at Adana USA.
My observations:
I was having trouble with green spot algae on glass and driftwood, green hair algae on some plant leaves and blue beard algae mainly on Java and Christmas mosses. Also, prior to installation I tried to remove as much of the visible algae as possible.
The reactor is an eye sore, specially in my 5 gallon Marineland Portrait which is all black. To solve that, I decided to place the reactor in the filter area and put the water pump right above it so it sucks all the microbubbles and sprays them around the tank through the duckbill nozzle.
Two weeks in, algae is GONE. I was really skeptical about it but it really works. I had to spot clean some places like in between substrate and glass where the bubbles can't reach but after that initial upkeep no more algae. I believe it doesn't kill established algae but it kills its spores, stopping the cycle. Just for testing purposes, I increased the light cycles from 10 hours a day to 12 hours a day in the first week, 14 hours a day week 2 and no algae on the driftwood which would grow instantly even under 8 hour light cycles.
Fish and shrimp don't seem to be bothered by it at all. Actually, my betta was trying to chase the bubbles at first until he realized it was pointless.
Looks like my plants are happier and most specifically my mosses which were not really doing anything until I installed it. They really took off, night and day. I think there was a layer of algae on their tiny leaves retarding their growth. All the other plants seem to be doing fine, I can't really tell if they are growing faster with the Twinstar.
I have a feeling that for those who didn't get the same results it's either because the water flow in their tanks is not ideal or maybe because the model they got isn't sufficient for their tank size.
This mini review isn't scientific, it's solely based on visual inspection of my tank and problematic areas where I would always have algae issues.
My observations:
I was having trouble with green spot algae on glass and driftwood, green hair algae on some plant leaves and blue beard algae mainly on Java and Christmas mosses. Also, prior to installation I tried to remove as much of the visible algae as possible.
The reactor is an eye sore, specially in my 5 gallon Marineland Portrait which is all black. To solve that, I decided to place the reactor in the filter area and put the water pump right above it so it sucks all the microbubbles and sprays them around the tank through the duckbill nozzle.
Two weeks in, algae is GONE. I was really skeptical about it but it really works. I had to spot clean some places like in between substrate and glass where the bubbles can't reach but after that initial upkeep no more algae. I believe it doesn't kill established algae but it kills its spores, stopping the cycle. Just for testing purposes, I increased the light cycles from 10 hours a day to 12 hours a day in the first week, 14 hours a day week 2 and no algae on the driftwood which would grow instantly even under 8 hour light cycles.
Fish and shrimp don't seem to be bothered by it at all. Actually, my betta was trying to chase the bubbles at first until he realized it was pointless.
Looks like my plants are happier and most specifically my mosses which were not really doing anything until I installed it. They really took off, night and day. I think there was a layer of algae on their tiny leaves retarding their growth. All the other plants seem to be doing fine, I can't really tell if they are growing faster with the Twinstar.
I have a feeling that for those who didn't get the same results it's either because the water flow in their tanks is not ideal or maybe because the model they got isn't sufficient for their tank size.
This mini review isn't scientific, it's solely based on visual inspection of my tank and problematic areas where I would always have algae issues.
